Jack Reed Details Incredible Incompetence Of Elon Musk And His DOGE Minions
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Hi everyone and welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast. I'm your host Will Walden and if you're new here this is a show all about Elon Musk and his groundbreaking work that he's doing with his various companies including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and of course X. And before we dive into today's episode I wanted to share a quick insight from our show's analytics. It turns out that 45% of you listening right now are subscribed to the show and thank you for that. But

but that means that 55% of you are not. So I'm offering you a deal. I promise to do everything in my power to keep bringing you the latest and most interesting news about Elon Musk every single day and about his companies if you'll do me one favor and hit the subscribe or follow button on your podcast platform right now. That's it. Pretty simple and straightforward. It takes just a second for you, but it makes a huge difference for the show. Senator from Rhode Island.

Thank you, Mr. President. On day one, President Trump lit the fuse on Elon Musk's plan to hollow out the federal government by changing the name of an obscure technical office within the White House, the U.S. Digital Services, USDS, and called it DOGE, without congressional authorization.

and giving it extraordinary reach into the operations of the federal agencies. Since then, we have heard report after report about how Mr. Musk and Doge have rammed their way into agencies, not to make smart decisions, not to improve efficiency, not to eliminate ways, fraud and abuse, but to disrupt, denigrate, and demoralize.

And along the way, Doge has made incredible blunders, such as firing and then scrambling to rehire employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration. Let me repeat that. Mr. Musk and his minions fired the people who keep nuclear weapons safe, and then someone realized, fortunately, within a few days, they had to come back.

And here's another example: Musk and his hackers made CIA send an unclassified email with the names of its recent hires. Boy, if I was in the Russian Security Service, I'd love to get a list, which they did, of everyone who's going into the CIA. They also cut staff from the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Weather Service,

who prevent and warn every American of travel and weather dangers. And it goes beyond that. Agricultural interests listen daily to the reports, the accurate reports of the Weather Service, so they can plan their crops, they can plan everything. And that's being withered away, and I think the ultimate goal is to privatize it, which is not the best way to go.

These actions don't just reflect incredible incompetence, they are dangerous. They undermine national security and increase risk for American citizens. In any other setting, blunders like these would be grounds for firing. But Musk and Doge operate with arrogance, impunity, and zero transparency. Millions of Americans are asking, "Who are these people?"

As a ranking member of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee, the subcommittee that ostensibly oversees the budget for the White House, USDS, and DOJ, I'm asking the same question. Because Congress, like the American people, is being kept in the dark. As appropriators, we typically work together on a bipartisan basis, no matter which party is in the White House,

to get information, to conduct oversight, to ensure that federal dollars are spent in accordance with the laws passed by Congress. But now, without authorization from Congress, DOGE is recklessly slashing its way through virtually every federal agency, from the Office of Personnel Management to Treasury to HUD to State to USAID and to the Department of Defense.

and more. It's vital that we understand what Doge is and isn't. While Elon Musk tells us and the American people that Doge is maximally transparent, it is not. We still do not have answers to fundamental questions like: What is the scope of Doge's work? How many people work at Doge? And who are they?

Do they also hold jobs outside the federal government? What are their financial holdings and potential conflicts of interest? Do they have allegiances to foreign governments? Will DOGE respond to requests under the Freedom of Information Act? What are its plans to reform agencies? Who is DOGE firing and why? And many, many other questions.

And unfortunately, when Doge shares information, it is frequently wrong. As the New York Times reported, five of Doge's biggest claims savings were deleted from its website because they were inaccurate. This includes a canceled USAID contract for $650 million, which was counted by Doge three times.

A canceled Social Security contract was erroneously listed as being worth $232 million instead of the actual $560,000. And a canceled ICE contract was listed as saving $8 billion instead of $8 million. If you go to them to name something the Department of Government Efficiency

Don't you owe it to the taxpayers to actually do a good job? On top of having zero accountability, Doge legal authority to operate is dubious. Doge has essentially taken over the USDS, which was originally established to help federal agencies more adeptly utilize technology to serve the American people.

Over the years, USDS helped establish everything from direct file, which helps taxpayers file their taxes for free, to direct mail COVID tests, to a successful online passport renewal protocol. Doge is now using the hollowed shell of USDS to illegally undo the American federal government, moving from agency to agency, cutting congressionally appropriated funds,

spend priorities and even dismantling entire agencies. The bottom line is that DOGE is without congressional authorization and without direct funding from Congress is acting to undermine the federal government and frankly contempt to the United States Congress as a constitutional body who

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creates the laws. The president's challenge in the Constitution is to enforce those laws, not to circumvent the Congress of the United States. Based on a press report, it appears to be doge, populated by a mixture of unelected billionaires, tech executives, and unvetted, inexperienced people, including an individual who is found to have posted racist tweets.

This gang is being granted access to America's most sensitive data, like your bank accounts, your social security accounts, and it would seem, a host of classified intelligence. And how are they using this information? How are they protecting this information from our enemies? Is it being shared with outside entities?

Is Doge simply being used to give Mr. Musk, his companies, and his billionaire friends an advantage when competing for government contracts? We simply don't know what this gang is doing inside the government. Every single day that passes without transparency and congressional access to information about Doge's funding, staffing, and scope of work is a moment too long.

With the current continuing resolution due to expire on March 14th, we have big decisions to make. My hope is that these decisions can be made on a bipartisan basis informed by the facts. But we cannot responsibly fund the government if we do not understand how Doge has infiltrated it, made it less efficient and less responsive to taxpayers, and essentially

has circumvented the constitutional responsibilities of the United States Congress. With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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